Seeing this link brought tears to my eyes.
At the time the tapes were made, I was the tender age of three, but I
still have a very close connection with those images and with the tapes.
My grandfather, Walter Lyons, an electrical engineer with RCA, helped
develop the technology used in taking the images from the Lunar Orbiter
and Surveyor series and converting them into radio waves and into the
data found on these tapes.
Although he never was licensed as an amateur, he was one of my
inspirations for becoming a ham. Unfortunately, he passed away 2 years
before I earned my ticket.
73 de W0HV, Jim in Raymore, MO (ex-N8AU)
Light travels faster than sound... This is why some people appear
bright until you hear them speak.
Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:30:36 -0900
From: Edward Cole <kl7uw at acsalaska.net>
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Earthrise - add
To: Joe Fitzgerald <jfitzgerald at alum.wpi.edu>
Cc: Amsat BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Message-ID: <200812252030.mBPKUbv8086213 at hermes.acsalaska.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
At 04:25 AM 12/25/2008, Joe Fitzgerald wrote:
>Rocky Jones wrote:
> > I think that the first black and white photo of Earthrise over
> the Moon...was from one of the Lunar Orbiters... I think 5...
> >
> >
> >
>There was a nice story recently about a recent restoration of that
photo
>...http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-111408a.html>>-Joe KM1P
>_______________________________________________
>Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the
author.
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I am amazed at times how my own past resurfaces.
One of my duties at Goldstone from 1974-1976 was to manage the tape
backup for data received from spacecraft like the Voyagers and
Pioneers that flew by Jupiter, Saturn (and the outer planets after my
time), and other missions. It was sort of an unwanted task handed
off on me. But I took it serious and devised a record system to keep
track of when they were recorded and so they would be retained for
the required time period. These were backups as the prime data had
been transmitted to the mission scientist. These were held a minimum
of 30-days in case of any bad data in the originals. I started
stacking them in an unused office but in time they ended up in the
climate-controlled "basement" of the 64m DSS-14 Control
Building. They ended up being kept much longer than 30-days. I'm
guessing these reel tapes were made by the same recorder as mentioned
in the article. Isn't it fantastic that the old Lunar tapes were
recoverable! 2009 will be my 30th anniversary of leaving Jet
Propulsion Lab to move to Alaska...tempis fugit!
The, then new, Hydrogen Maser Master Clock was installed in this same
room. It was used for precise timing of VLBI experiments, which
previously required calibration by the famous "flying clock" or the
x-band Moon Bounce timing system (ask Dick, K6HIJ). Not only
Goldstone, but Madrid, and Canberra stations required to be on the
same accurate time (ask Tom Clark about that).
As the New Year approaches we reflect on the past. Thanks to those
who recently found those articles.
Merry Christmas and Happy New year!
73, Ed Cole - KL7UW (& Janet)